Narayan Debnath

Narayan Debnath
নারায়ণ দেবনাথ

Narayan Debnath in 2013
Born Narayan Debnath
Shibpur, Howrah, Bengal, British India
Nationality Indian
Area(s) West Bengal
Awards President's Special Recognition Award (2007), Sahitya Akademi (2013), Banga Bibhushan (2013), D. Litt. by Rabindra Bharati University (2015) .
narayandebnath.indidir.com

Narayan Debnath (Bengali: নারায়ণ দেবনাথ : 1925. is senior and popular comic artist of Kolkata, West Bengal. He is the creator of the popular Bengali comic strips of Handa Bhonda (1962),Batul The Great (1965) and Nonte Phonte(1969). He holds the record of longest running comics by an individual artiste for Handa Bhonda comics series which have now completed its continuous 53 years of running. He is the first and only Comics-Artist in India who has received D. Litt degree (Doctor of Letters).

His other creations like Rabi Chobi was published to celebrate the birth centenary of Rabindranath Tagore in the May, 1961 issue of the weekly magazine called Anandamela. The full length 50-page comics were first published in the book format by Sarvodaya Sahitya Prakashan, Varanasi. Rajar Raja (was published in 1962), it was illustrated by Narayan Debnath and written by Bimal Ghosh to celebrate the birth centenary of Swami Vivekananda. It was published every Monday for two years in the weekly Anandamela magazine. Eventually the 100-page comics was published in the form of a book in 1965 by Anandabajar Private Limited. Around this time, the popular artist Shibshankar was also producing the illustrated comics of Swami Vivekananda (Mar-Apr, 1961) in Shuktara, but in mid-1962 Shibshankar had to abandon the project and the responsibility was passed over to Debnath. Debnath then illustrated comics on Vivekananda simultaneously in both Shuktara and Anandamela. Later the 44-page Swami Vivekananda comics in Shuktara was renamed Chobite Vivekananda by Deb Sahitya Kutir (DSK) and published in 1964. The 33-page Chitre Durgeshnandini (Apr-May, 1962) was published in Nobokollol magazine by DSK.Handa Bhoda was first published in the Jun-July, 1962 issue of Shuktara. Nonte Phonte was first published in December, 1969 issue of the new children’s monthly magazine called Kishore Bharati produced by PATRABHARATI. Chhatrapati Shivaji was published in Anandamela (1964–65). Shootki ar Mootki was published in 1964 in Shuktara. Hirer Tiara was published in 1965 in Nobokollol magazine. Indrajit Ray o Black Diamond was published in 1970 in Kishore Bharati (Black Diamond Rahashya ebong Goenda Indrajit Ray, which is now published by Patra Bharati includes these nine amazing short graphic narratives - Rahashyamay Shei Barita, Black Diamond, Toofan-Mail er Yatri, Kachei Mohona, Shondher Mahuamilan, Station Mukutmanipur, Chandni Raate, Ei Kolkatay and Jibon-Dip). Rahashyamay Abhijatri was published in 1972 in Shuktara. Itihasher Dourath was published in 1974 in Kishore Bharati. Koushik Roy was published in Shuktara in 1976. Bahadur Beral was published in Shuktara in 1983. Daanpite Khadu Aar Tar Chemical Dadu was published in Chotoder Ashore magazine in 1983. Petukmaster Batuklal was published in 1984 in Kishore Mon magazine. Mahakasher Ajob Deshe was published in 1994 in Shuktara. And finally Jatoker Golpo was published in 1994 in Shuktara.

Narayan Debnath in his study.

Early life

Narayan Debnath was born and spent most of his life living in Shibpur, Howrah, India. His family hailed from Bikrampur in what is now in Bangladesh but had migrated to Shibpur before his birth. In an interview published by Laalmati Publication in Narayan Debnath Comics Samagra, Debnath confessed that he was interested in visual arts from a very early age. The family business was retailing gold and he had ample scope to design patterns for jewellery. During the time of World War II, Debnath would study fine arts at the Indian Art College for five years. He did not continue to get his degree but instead discontinued in his final year. For the next few years he freelanced for advertising agencies creating movie slides and logos. Debnath recounts in Narayan Debnath Comics Samagra, Vol. 2 that on the day of his wedding Gandhi was assassinated, which caused much inconvenience to the guests. The four volumes of Narayan Debnath Comics Samagra provide rich information about the life of the author.

In 1950 he was introduced to Dev Sahitya Kutir, a major publishing house through a friend. People such as Pratul Chandra Banerjee, Shailo Chakraborty, Balaibandhu Roy, and Purnachandra Chakraborti were associated with the press at the time. From 1950 to 1961 he illustrated a number of children's books including adventure novels and Western classics in translation. His journey in comics started in 1962 with 'Handa-Bhonda' in Shuktara.

He began as a freelancing comics-artist and soon went for comics on his own . However, when still a struggling freelancer, he was instructed by the publisher to adopt 'well accepted foreign comics' to make comics for their magazine(s) to get easy business.

Introduction to comics

The suggestion to work in comics in Bengali came from the editors at Dev Sahitya Kutir. Also the name 'Handa Bhonda' was their suggestion. Debnath had been familiar with foreign comics, but comics in Bengal, to his belief, had yet to take off. 'Shiyal Pandit', a comic strip created by Pratul Chandra Lahiri for the Jugantar newspaper was one of the earliest ones. Handa-Bhonda became an instant success and continues to be printed in Shuktara every month . Handa-Bhonda was initially penciled and inked by Debnath and had no coloured frames. Later it would be printed in the grey-scale.

Narayan Debnath's first comic characters in color were for the comic strip and book 'Bantul The Great'. By Debnath's admission, he thought up the idea of the superhero while returning from College Street, Calcutta. The name came to him instantly and he thought up the figure of the protagonist rapidly. Batul the Great, written and illustrated with red and black ink made his first appearance in comic strips in the May–June (Bengali Baishak), 1965 issue of the monthly children’s periodical called Shuktara, published by Dev Sahitya Kutir (henceforth DSK) publishing house. Apart from Batul the Great, Debnath also illustrated Rabi Chobi (1961), written by Bimal Ghosh about the childhood days of Rabindranath Tagore. His Rajar Raja/Chobite Vivekananda (1962) recreates the life and times of Swami Vivekananda, while his Chitre Durgeshnandini (1962) re-imagines Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay’s novel Durgeshnandini in graphic novel techniques. But it was his Handa Bhoda (1962),Nonte Phonte (1969) and Shootki ar Mootki (1964) that revolutionized the comic genre in Bengal through the familiar trope of the ‘terrible twins’ at boarding school. This trope could be traced back to the German artist Wilhelm Bosch’s Max and Moritz (1865) – an illustrated story in verse, which later found its way into the English world as The Katzenjammer Kids (1897) of Rudolph Dirks and Harold H. Knerr. The trope is also found in Hergè’s Quick and Flupke (1930).

Narayan Debnath

Development of the genre

When the Bangladesh War of Liberation flared up, he was asked by the editors and publishers to add an aura of invincibility. He made Bantul a superhero able to take on tanks, aircraft, and missiles. Bullets began to bounce off of him . Bantul is still drawn by Debnath for Shuktara.

He gave birth to eponymous cartoon characters, Nonte and Phonte in 1969, and since then, stories revolve around them, have been regularly published in “Kishor Bharati”.

He had started his freelancing artist career from 1950 in Suktara magazine and did the record of doing highest number of illustrations in Bengal . He was a renowned illustrator during his time. His work for Tarzan stories (continuous for 42 years ! ), Bengali translation of foreign novels etc. are among his great works of illustration.

Selected creations

Popularity

Collections of Debnath's comics have been published serially in Shuktara and Kishor Bharati and irregularly in Kishor Mon, Chotoder Asar, Pakhkhiraj etc.. His comic books featuring 'Handa Bhonda', 'Batul the Great' and 'Nonte Phonte' have been published since the early 1980s. Since the late 1990s, the Nonte Phonte comics have been anthologised and published in softcover format. From 2003 onwards, the earlier comics have been re-inked and published in full-color, Recently, Debnath gave permission for animation film based on the characters from 'Batul The Great', 'Handa Bhonda' and 'Nonte Phonte', and these provide access to the original stories to a whole new generation of children. Narayan Debnath's Handa Bhonda and Nonte Phonte are now also downloadable through an Android app published by Comixphere.com.

Debnath's style incorporating characters speaking in the typical language of Bengali adda (the quintessential Bengali gossip sessions lasting hours) and hundreds of nonstandard, yet most commonly used expletives in daily life like "Uls" (describing reaction to a delicious food) or "Aoofs", "Yiofs", "Arghhh"(similar to ouch). Subtle punning is also aplenty in his comics but the main source of comedy is slapstick.

Though his comic characters have immense popularity, Narayan Debnath himself has rather lived reclusively, distancing himself from publicity and media.

Television

Most of Narayan Debnath's work has been adapted for Bengali television. Nonte Phonte and Bantul the Great are animated shows today, while a television series called Handa Bhonda was briefly on air.

See also

References and notes

Online references are few and far between. Although often mentioned in English language blogs and on discussion forums, there is a scarcity of primary literature on Narayan Debnath or his creations in English. The best references are in Bengali and are the following two works (both available online)

More links that are referred above.

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